IRA Literacy Research Panel Draws Overflow Crowd

| May 01, 2012

The presentation by IRA’s new Literacy Research Panel during the Association’s Chicago convention on Monday morning, April 30, drew such huge interest that the meeting room could not accommodate all of the attendees who wanted to get in. Indeed, the convention center fire marshals had to appear on site to close off further access.

IRA President Victoria Risko opened the event by introducing the attending panelists, and then thanking them and the panel chair, P. David Pearson for all of the work they invested in making this extraordinary presentation possible. Risko then turned the mike over to Pearson who gave a brief history of the Panel’s formation and described the work of its four committees, which were charged with a vision statement, a convention event, a quick policy response capacity, and professional resources. The latter two projects will require additional review by the IRA Board of Directors.

A copy of the panel’s vision statement was reprinted in the program booklet that was prepared for this event. To make sure the statement received the broadest possible exposure, another copy of it was posted to Reading Today Online. Comments on the statement are welcome and should be forwarded to research@/.

When the introduction was finished, Pearson passed the microphone on to Peter Afflerbach, who emceed the “town hall” portion of the program. Afflerback read four prepared questions dealing with common core and related subjects, including engagement, and directed them to groups of two or three panelists who were preselected to give short answers. The result was a highly informative and wide ranging discussion by the panelists, who included some of the top researchers in the literacy field today. Once the prepared questions were finished another series of questions was put to the panelists, this time from members of the audience, who were asked to submit their queries on index cards.

The attending panelists, in addition to Pearson and Afflerbach, included Peter Johnston, Peter Freebody, Nell Duke, Tim Shanahan, Amy Correa, Annemarie Palincsar, Elizabeth Moje, Kris Gutierrez, and John Guthrie. Linda Phillips, a new panel member for Alberta, Canada, participated via a pre-taped video which was aired during the session. Virginia Goatley, IRA’s research director, an ex officio member of the panel, also provided comments.

Hearing the panelists score certain impractical aspects of the Common Core State Standards and set research based frames for responding to other vial policy issues proved to be quite a tonic for massed audience. Rounds of applause broke out several times during the presentation.

P. David Pearson